Will be fearing playing against Indian team having Virat, says Ricky Ponting

Former Australia batter Ricky Ponting backed Virat Kohli and said that Team India should not drop him before the upcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup.

While Kohli struggled for runs during this year's IPL and hasn't made a century for his country in any format for almost three years, Ponting believes the 33-year-old is worth persisting with at the international level.

"I think if I was an opposition captain or an opposition player, I will be fearing playing an Indian team that has Virat Kohli in it, more than I would be one that doesn't have him in it. I know there have been some challenges for him, it's been a difficult time," said Ponting in the latest episode of The ICC Review.

"But every great player that I have seen in this game has been through it at some stage, whether that's a batsman or a bowler, they have all been through it. And somehow, the best (players) find a way to rebound and respond, and it's only a matter of time before Virat does that," he added.

Ponting thinks if India do decide to omit Kohli for the T20 World Cup in Australia then there might be no way back for him.

"If you leave Virat out of the eve of the World Cup, and someone comes in and has a reasonable tournament, it will be hard for Virat to get back in it," Ponting said.

"If I was India, I will keep pushing with him, because I know the upside. If they actually get him back confident and playing as well as he can, that upside is better than most. So I think if I was a captain or a coach around the Indian set-up, I will be making life as easy as possible for him to feel as comfortable as possible, and just wait for him to flick the switch and start scoring runs again," he added.

Ponting suggested selectors must find a spot for Kohli in India's top-order and commit to leaving the champion batter there for the entirety of the T20 World Cup, with the hope he finds his best form during the knockout stages of the tournament.

"Early in the tournament, for a first-round game, (it's important to) get him in nice and early, among the runs, and then hopefully by the end of the tournament you'll have Virat Kohli back at his best," Ponting said.

"That's the way I would look at it. I wouldn't think about holding him back at the start of the tournament, with the thought that you might be able to bring him back towards the back end and have him peak. Tournament play isn't like that," he added.

Kohli could manage scores of only 11 and 20 in the fifth and final Test against Edgbaston and continued his bad performances in T20Is, where he could score only 12 runs in two innings.

This was followed by 17 and 16 runs in the three-match ODI series against England.

Also, Kohli had a sub-par IPL 2022, in which he could score only 341 runs in 16 games at an average of 22.73 and a sub-par strike rate of 115.98. He could score only two half-centuries in the tournament.

( With inputs from ANI )

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